Posted on 11/02/2005 7:03:16 AM PST by Wolfie
Denver Pot Issue Passes By Thin Margin
Denver residents Tuesday voted to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, but the state attorney general said the vote was irrelevant because state law will still be enforced.
The measure passed 54 percent to 46 percent.
"It just goes to show the voters of Denver are fed up with a law that prohibits adults from making a rational, safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol," said Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, or SAFER.
The measure will change the city's ordinance to make it legal for adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana in the city.
Denver follows the city of Oakland, which last year voted to make marijuana possession its lowest enforcement priority and required the city to develop a plan for licensing and taxing the sale, use and cultivation of marijuana for private use. Voters in Telluride Tuesday defeated a similar measure.
Denver is "the second major city in less than a year to pass a vote which says that marijuana should be treated essentially like alcohol, taxed and regulated," said Bruce Mirken, the director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, one of the largest groups opposing jail time for the use of pot. "This has been characterized as a fringe issue, and clearly it's not."
Even though voters approved Initiative 100, Denver police still will bring charges under state law, which carries a fine of up to $100 and a mandatory $100 drug-offender surcharge for possession of small amounts of marijuana, said Attorney General John Suthers.
"I have found these efforts to be unconstructive," Suthers said.
"I understand the debate about legalization and whether our drug laws are constructive. But I wish we would have a full-out debate instead of these peripheral issues that accomplish just about nothing," he said.
Tvert said marijuana supporters will push for a statewide initiative that would allow for the licensing and regulation of the selling of marijuana.
"This is not just symbolic," he said. "This is a fact. This city voted to change a city ordinance. We expect the city officials to respect the will of the voters who elected them."
In Denver, backers of the initiative sparked controversy with their campaign.
Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown blasted as deceptive their campaign signs, which declared: "Make Denver SAFER, Vote Yes on I-100." Brown said he feared voters would believe the initiative would put more police on Denver streets.
Under fire from domestic-violence groups, SAFER also pulled a controversial billboard that showed a battered woman and her abuser with the slogan "Reduce family and community violence in Denver. Vote Yes on I-100."
Proponents of the initiative tried to draw Mayor John Hickenlooper into the fray by labeling him a hypocrite for selling alcohol in his brewpubs when he opposed their efforts to legalize marijuana.
During one rally, they unveiled a banner that read: "What is the difference between Mayor Hickenlooper and a marijuana dealer? The mayor has made his fortune selling a more harmful drug: alcohol."
Tuesday night, Hickenlooper said he was surprised by the vote.
"It doesn't supersede state law, so it's really symbolic of changing attitudes," the mayor said.
54-46 ain't close.
Yeah, sure, whatever. All the pot smokers I know drink as well as smoke pot. So it's not REALLY the way they portray it.
But I suppose in those cases where somebody chooses one over the other, I've seen more lives destroyed by alcohol than by pot.
If they want to smoke up, fine. But what kind of reasoning is this? You have to either drink or smoke, so choose the lesser of two evils? I'm content to eat bacon.
I have never understood why someone would want to smoke pot and drink. The calories alone in alcohol make it not worth it.
Translation: We don't call what the "will of the people" is, unless it gives us more power or more money.
How in the heck do you smoke a pot? Why would anyone want to is beyond me. I have been to two worlds fairs, been round the world, and watched a donkey show. Never read anything so dumb in my life.
Good point, but Doritos and Ho-Hos and large pizzas with everything have lots of calories too... ;)
Translation: We don't call what the "will of the people" is, unless it gives us more power or more money.
Exactly. This is a chilling sentence: "the state attorney general said the vote was irrelevant because state law will still be enforced."
This is the same logic that the Feds use to stomp all over state laws that they don't like. "Local government" only has as much power of self-determination as the higher authorities allow it to have. Can't let any decisions be made at the local level, after all. What do the people know about what's best for them?
Well, sometimes we just need to use willpower! LOL
Denver believes, no kidding here, that because it is a
"Home Rule" city, that the United States Constitution, the State of Colorado Constitution, and all federal and State laws are void within the city limits. Not kidding. Several judges, the mayor, and the city council have all said so.
"Can't let any decisions be made at the local level, after all."
There are plenty of decisions made locally, but since when does the local government get to ignore the state and dfederal governments? Local governmental powers are derived from the higher authorities.
No way. Do you know how many lives are destroyed by bacon? There is no redeeming value, it just adds to the obesity crisis facing America and offends our Islamic friends. Further, since bacon can be sold across state lines, the federal government should make decisions about whether or not you should eat bacon. /sarc
Really? Where?
Whether you are pro or anti pot legalization the scariest realization to come out of this decision is the statement you posted. Think about it the "higher authorities" are openly telling us, it doesn't matter how you voted, we will tell you what you as a community are allowed to do. I guess that whole "Land of the Free", phrase is nothing more than a slogan.
I guess while smoking pot you flunked civics?
Pop Quiz: Where do you THINK local governments are derived?
Then why can local communities vote for "nuclear free zone" and other such nonsense.
You guess is correct. You guess.
Our Republic is founded on the proposition that local government is the best government. Power in our nation doesn't trickle down from the top, it rises from the bottom. Our ultimate authority is not the Federal Government but the People.
We have inverted that chain of authority, and this case just a new expression of it.
Why bother having local elections at all, if the higher authorities can just over-rule them?
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